By Abasi Ita, Calabar
An uneasy calm has enveloped the political camp of former Cross River Governor, Senator Ben Ayade as his political nightmare, Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe who defeated him in the Cross River North Senate election embarked on the legal defense of his electoral victory.
Already, about 33 witnesses have been assembled along with 1,531 exhibits bolstered by the Certified True Copies of INEC results in respect of the Cross River Senatorial polls as part of the defensive plan.
Lead counsel to Jarigbe, Mba Ukweni, SAN, also tendered authenticated Certified True Copies, CTCs, of INEC Result Viewing Centre, IREV, and hard copies of forms EC8A1 (Result sheets) to authenticate the mandate given to his client as proclaimed by INEC arising from the February 25, elections.
The disputed election is one of the matters to be determined by the Cross River National Assembly Election Petition with Suit No. EPT/CR/SEN/02/2023 with Justice M. A. Sambo as the chairman and C. Akabua and J. Zululu as members has admitted the tendered exhibits in evidence of the Authentic CTCs (Certified True Copies) of Results from INEC.
Addressing newsmen in Calabar in between the day’s proceedings, Mba Ukweni, SAN said, “Initially we had over 500 constituents from the senatorial district who were lined up to testify but the tribunal has limited them to 33”
“It took us time to persuade them that many of them are not on the list and they said they want to come and defend their mandate.”
Again debunking the claim by the petitioners that the result was rigged, he said: “There was no document they (petitioners) tendered to show
that the result was rigged. What they were merely trying to do was to tender a declaration of the result, which is Form EC8E1, trying to show that the names of other candidates who lost were not on the declaration of the result list. And we will explain that in our final address.
“That form is meant to declare the winner of the election and not the person who lost. The election is a process, from the polling units to the wards, from the wards to the local government before you go to the Senatorial collation.
“So are they saying the summation of results from the constituency level they are in doubt about the scores of the various parties?
“So it is not until their names and scores are included in Form EC8E1 that we can say they participated or any crooked thing was done.
“No crooked thing was done.
if you had asked him further he would have explained the circumstances because it was their intention (the petitioners) to change the scores and the people themselves resisted.
“The petitioners had the intention to change the scores and he (petitioner) was the sitting governor and so had powers to do what he wanted to do but the people of the Northern Senatorial District resisted.
“It is not just that once a petition has been filled, it is bound to succeed. Generally,
we would have said we are resting our case on their case based on the evidence before us. But What we are doing is to be doubly sure, thus all cross-examinations again to be doubly sure. It’s like killing an ant with a sledgehammer”, the Senior Advocate stated.
The erstwhile Governor Ben Ayade, represented at the Tribunal by a team of lawyers led by Mike Ozekhome, SAN, had earlier presented its witnesses and tendered some documents also in a bid to buttress the allegations.